Wrong Place, Wrong Time
by Zetta
Summary: "They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally, they became heroes." MWPP get mixed up in a dangerous business...
1. Prologue

Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Timeline: This story is meant to take place in MWPP's fifth year. I began writing it a very long time ago, before the fifth book even came out. I think I've changed everything so it's cannon friendly, but I'm sorry if I missed anything…  
Summary: "They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally, they became heroes." MWPP get mixed up in a dangerous business...  
Characters: MWPP

*****  
Prologue  
*****

They made it into the safety of the Shrieking Shack just moments before the full moon slipped away, gone to hide for another month.

With a final, pain-filled howl, Moony sank to the ground, his body changing, his bones adjusting and growing again to take the shape of a teenage wizard instead of a werewolf. The human was left naked and hurting on the floor.

Around him, his three companions- rat, dog, and stag- changed into their human forms with much greater ease and much less pain. The former dog and stag sank to the floor, exhausted after a long night of running around and keeping a very strong werewolf under control.

Peter, the rat, stretched enough that his back cracked, and then went to get some clothes for Remus, who was still naked except for a sheet he'd pulled over himself. Peter was always in charge of moving about first thing because he was carried around most of the night, and usually the least tired the morning after.

Remus pulled a blanket over himself, closed his eyes and laid back, groaning. He was tired and hurting, but couldn't help but to grin at the other two as they moved to sit closer to him.

"That was awesome," Sirius said, his voice cracking in the middle of his exclamation of pleasure.

James laughed, grateful that stags did not have any moon-howling urges like wolves and dogs, and so he wouldn't have a sore throat. His stomach would be upset- the greens had looked so good as a stag that he hadn't been able to resist, but other than that, there would be no ill effects of the night of fun.

Their second month of changing with Moony was a success.

Peter returned and sat down near them, giving Remus his clothing for the day.

"What time is it?" Peter asked, not wearing a watch.

"Time for us to get out of here," James answered with a glance at his wrist. "Pomfrey will be here soon."

"Wonderful," Remus croaked, and started dressing, wincing as he pulled his pants on beneath the sheet. The other boys had turned their heads, but nonetheless, the sheet at least gave him a bit more privacy. "You'd better get going then," he said.

"You're all right?" James asked, giving Remus a suspicious look.

"I'm fine," Remus said, not sounding any worse than normal. Even before they'd become Animagus, they'd snuck in to see him before Pomfrey got there in the morning, and so they all knew what a normal morning after was for him. "Get out of here."

Reluctantly, the other three gathered themselves together, gave Remus good-bye waves and grins and pulled James's invisibility cloak out and over them, then walked out the front door of the Shrieking Shack.

The foursome knew about two ways to Hogsmeade.

The first was through the Whomping Willow. The boys all took that tunnel to the Shrieking Shack on the nights before the full moon, but only Remus took it to get back the morning after.

James, Sirius, and Peter, afraid that Pomfrey would see them and wonder what was going on, used a second passageway that went from the floor of the shed behind the Three Broomsticks to a portrait of a door inside Hogwarts. Sneaking out of the Shack wasn't a problem as long as they were careful. A quick jog from behind the Shack to the woods, then from the woods to the Three Broomsticks.

They had discovered the passageway in their fourth year, when James had been in detention, scrubbing the hallway floor, and had seen the Head Boy and his girlfriend sneaking out. In return for his silence, the Head Boy told James how it worked and where it ended up.

The quartet now knew about three passageways in and about Hogwarts that no one else knew about. Well, almost no one.

The third passageway they had found only recently, and had been explored during the full moon the night before. It began in the dungeon, in a broom closet, and ran all the way out past Hogsmeade, to the hills where there were several caves.

The four had spent hours exploring them over the night.

Now that it was daylight, they were all exhausted and thought longingly of their beds in Gryffindor tower. But they had class in an hour and a half and James and Sirius felt it would be useless to go to bed. Peter wasn't so sure, but agreed for the sake of being one of the group.

So instead of heading for bed, they went to get breakfast in the Great Hall and then up to the hospital wing to see Remus.

Sirius began updating Remus on all of the gossip he'd missed at dinner and breakfast, Peter adding in the little details that Sirius forgot, and James skimmed the paper for news of interest.

"In four games by the Cannons, they scored 200 points," James said with a smirk. "I scored that by myself."

"It _is_ the Cannons," Sirius reminded him. "That shouldn't be such a shock to you."

James ignored him. "It says that there will be pro-scouts at the Gryffindor Slytherin match at the end of the year too..."

"Stupid time to come," Sirius said. "OWLs and NEWTs will get everybody so preoccupied they can't even fly right."

"That'll be better for you though, right James?" Peter asked. "Because then you'll look even better and you don't even need to study."

James shrugged. "Yeah, but I hope it's not too bad- you can't tell how good I am unless it's a real match..."

Remus rolled his eyes. "I'm sure it'll break your little heart if they all stink," he said.

James grinned. "Yeah... I know. But still, I'd like to get recruited by the Magpies or Puddlemere or someone good... If it's only a mediocre match, I might get picked up by the Cannons, and really, why would I want to play for _them_?"

"You think when you're pro, Evans will like you better?" Sirius asked innocently.

James gave him an irritated look. "If she liked me any better, I'd have to throw her off me."

The other three found that very funny and laughed at him. "Throw her off," Sirius chuckled. "You're funny, Jim."

James gave them an irritated look. "What is so funny about that?"

Sirius snorted. "If she said two words to you this year that had nothing to do with telling you off, I'd eat my shoe."

"Eat up," Remus said. "They had that potions project together, remember?"

"Yeah. But Evans refused to talk to him outside of telling him to shut up and let her do the work so it was done properly."

"Oh yeah," Remus said with a slight grin.

"It's all an act," James assured them. "She'll give in eventually. What girl wouldn't?"

The other three snickered again, and James ignored them, returning to the paper.

Then, just as quickly he set it down, sliding to the edge of his seat and indicating his excitement just by the way his eyes lit up so wickedly. "I want to go back to the caves before the next full moon," he said. "I'd bet there's a pretty good place for us to hide in there, you know? I still want to try the Polyjuice Potion this year, and-"

"It's too far away for that," said Remus as Sirius took the paper and flipped to the front page, leaning back and ignoring the rest of them.

"I know it is, but it would be a good place to test it out once it's made. Getting caught making a potion in the girls' loo is one thing, getting caught when we actually look like someone else is something else entirely. And we need a better place to store our things- McGonagall almost found the Fireworks last week, and I've invested a lot of money into those things. They're not cheap. I still want to set them off at the end of the year."

"Caves do tend to be damp," said Remus. "They're wet start, aren't they?"

James rolled his eyes. "I'm not saying we keep them in a big pile in the corner- I've got an extra trunk we can store them in. A quick spell so it's air tight. What do you think, Sirius?"

Sirius was frowning at the paper though, his expression troubled. "There's another missing unicorn," he said. "About four kilometers outside Hogsmeade, there's a couple that takes care of one and it's gone. Unicorn blood all over, and signs of people having taken him. It's worse than that though." He hesitated, then continued. "And there's a possibility that a werewolf was killed last night too, but they didn't find out for sure in time to print."

That unsettling news caused them all to go quiet.

"Any word on why?" James asked.

"No," said Sirius. "Just that there was a lot of blood around and it looked messy." He looked up and leaned forward, dropping his voice. "Unicorn blood... You think it's Voldemort?"

Peter shivered. James and Remus frowned. "But why the werewolf?" James asked. "Aren't they supposed to be on his side-" He nodded slightly to Remus. "With exceptions, of course, but for the most part?"

Remus shook his head slightly. "A lot of them are like that, yeah... Maybe this one said no?"

"Or maybe it's unconnected," Sirius said.

Madam Pomfrey returned, and the boys changed the subject, but it was not forgotten.


	2. Chapter 1

Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Timeline: This story is meant to take place in MWPP's fifth year. I began writing it a very long time ago, before the fifth book even came out. I think I've changed everything so it's cannon friendly, but I'm sorry if I missed anything…  
Summary: "They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally, they became heroes." MWPP get mixed up in a dangerous business...  
Characters: MWPP

*****  
Chapter One  
*****

The problem with exploring the new caves was that, despite their strongest desires, they did have to do a bit of school work before having fun. Even James and Sirius started spending time in the library- and not to look up new ways to hex the Slytherins.

Remus was busy with Prefect duties- the two sixth year Prefects both came down with a terrible case of the flu, and their duties were divided up between the fifth and seventh years. Seeing as the Head Girl was one of those two, those duties were divided mainly between Remus, Lily Evans and the other seventh year.

Peter, frightened by the lecture McGonagall had given him about his marks, threw himself into studying for his classes, determined to prove he could succeed at something. That tied up much of the rest of the group's time as well- they each had a specialty, and Peter made them help him with it.

The first Quidditch match of the year was precluded by two weeks of intense training, enforced by the captain, a seventh year who was determined to win. Sirius and James had to go to two practices a day- one early in the morning, before classes started, and the second immediately after the evening meal- which meant they usually had to practice in the semi darkness that was encouraged by the massive trees between the Quidditch pitch and the setting sun.

Between that and the intensive prank plotting sessions that they had at least twice a week, their free time was almost nonexistent- unless they cut into sleep time, but all had received warnings about falling asleep in class again.

One of the few positives about the lack of adventures was that they couldn't get into as much trouble.

This, James noticed with interest, caught Lily Evans's attention, and he grinned at her every time she eyed them suspiciously, obviously waiting for the other shoe to drop. Sirius said it was just irritating her even more, but James figured that if his friends could get past the few irritating habits that he had, so would she when she came around.

(He didn't mention that to Sirius though- he would have laughed.)

October turned to November, and November to December, and then that was followed by the all too slowly approaching Christmas Holidays. The four boys had signed up to stay for it, much to the dismay of the professors and the students who were staying- all together, there were six Hufflepuffs, two Ravenclaws, and seven Slytherins, the four of them and three other Gryffindors who would remain behind.

James was most distressed to find out that Lily was going home for the holiday, as he'd bought her a Christmas present and wanted her to get it.

He paid one of her friends, a fellow member of the Quidditch team, a galleon to slip it into her trunk, and swore on his life that it wasn't a prank of any kind.

He looked forward to her reaction when she got back- she'd probably throw a fit over it.

"You bought her jewelry?" Sirius asked, staring at him. "Honestly, Potter, have you lost your mind?"

James shrugged. "She'll like it."

"Maybe, but I don't think she'll wear it, especially not around you, Prongs," Remus said. "She wouldn't want to encourage you."

James gave him a superior look, glad he hadn't bothered telling his friends about the pretty floral brooch until after he'd sent it with her. They'd have tried to talk him out of it. "She'll wear it. Maybe not here, but at home at least."

"So what will you follow it up with next year?" Sirius asked, ignoring Remus. "Since we all know you'll still be after her, pathetic git that you are."

James grinned. "Oh, I've got a few ideas. It'll be extra special because we'll be dating by then, I'll tell you that much." His friends were quite amused, and laughed, but James wasn't perturbed. "Anyway- are we still going out exploring after they all leave? I've figured out how to keep the teachers unaware."

"Oh?" asked Sirius. "Ought to be good. I'm for it. Remus? Peter?"

"Okay," agreed Peter.

Remus nodded. "But if we get killed by a cave collapsing on us, you'd best remember that it wasn't my idea."

"Don't worry, Moony," said James. "When we go, it'll be in a much flashier way than that. So listen, what we'll do..."

The students left for the holiday break, and the four Gryffindors put in an appearance at the evening meal and then the breakfast one the following morning. They skipped lunch, to set a precedent for the following day, and then went to the evening meal and put their escape plan in action.

While the vast majority of the school liked the four boys and their antics, there were always a few exceptions. Lily Evans was one, though James refused to admit it or let his friends admit it, and most of the rest of the fifth year students were others, mostly because they were the most frequent targets.

Given the slightest hint that they could get him in trouble, they would rat them out.

That was probably the only reason James wasn't disappointed that Lily went home that year. She was one of the worst for catching them in the midst of hijinks.

James and Sirius joined the rest of the students remaining during breakfast. They'd all taken seats at the end of their tables, near the professors, and Sirius and James made a show of whispering back and forth for most of the meal until they were sure that Albert, a Ravenclaw prefect who disliked them, could over hear.

James didn't understand why he got so upset. His face had returned to normal after all, it hadn't been a permanent jinx.

"And then, once we get through with Honeydukes, we'll head straight back, and no one will even know we're missing," James said, careful to keep up the charade of not wanting to be overheard.

"Good, I want to get some more liquorish wands," Sirius said. "And then-" he stopped suddenly, making a show of just noticing how closely Albert was watching them. "We'll talk about it later," he muttered, looking away from James.

But a moment later, Sirius winked at him, and without even looking at their eavesdropping friend, James knew that Albert would be reporting the planned mischief to the staff,.

They left dinner in excellent moods. "How long before they tell McGonagall do you think?" wondered Sirius.

James shrugged. "Hopefully not until after we're gone- that way we can get out of here before anyone even thinks of trying to stop us. I wonder how long it'll take them to figure out we're not in Hogsmeade?"

After a detour to the empty classroom they'd decided they would pretend to be in all day so that they could leave evidence of their presence behind, the quartet set off to the broom closet that held the passageway, each holding their wands and other supplies.

James had his cloak tucked in his backpack, and Sirius had the Marauder's Map in his. Food and drink was distributed amongst them and once that was loaded up, Sirius started through the the panel in the back of the closet and the rest followed, lighting up their wands as they stepped out.

"I wonder who else knows about this one," Sirius wondered, crouched down and looking at something on the ground. "Look at the footprints."

The four boys exchanged uneasy looks. Getting caught would not be something they were looking forwards to, that was for sure. Then again, it wasn't as if they could be ratted out if someone else was sneaking about.

But there was always Filch.

"Well," said James. "We'll have to go carefully then. Padfoot, do you wanna lead and sniff out trouble?"

Sirius shrugged. "Sure," he said, and melted into the dog form that was as familiar to all of them as Sirius himself.

They set out down the tunnel.

It was a long walk, taking well over an hour to get there. They moved slowly, because they were unfamiliar with the cave and because they worried that they would meet someone else. All agreed that it was unlikely- on the holiday, almost no one was in the school.

But the footsteps on the floor of the cave were still fresh, making it clear that someone had been in there recently, and it wasn't worth risking being seen.

When they finally reached the end of the tunnel, Sirius snuck out and looked around, then let out a short bark letting them know it was safe.

They entered the cave, looking around for the first time with human eyes.

There were footprints all over the cave- more than were in the tunnel- which meant it was known about, and that was disappointing, but the four boys decided it was still a nice place to hang out.

Sirius had been looking around a little further back than the rest of them and called them over. "Two things," he said, smirking. "First, this is an awesome place to snog a girl-" He pointed towards the ceiling, which had an opening wide enough to light up the little section of the cave. "Second, I think this place is known pretty well by some people."

They looked around and saw more footprints leading down some of the other tunnels.

James followed one of them that led down one of the caves, holding his wand up to offer light. "Let's do this properly then," he said. "Come on, I want to check this out some more."

They followed him, Peter dropping Wet Start No Heat Fireworks so that they could find their way back. He said it was something he'd learned in Muggle Studies, only the people in the story used breadcrumbs and they didn't have any of those.

"If those explode, it could cause the cave to collapse," Remus noted after a while.

Sirius quirked a brow. "If we set enough of them off in the school, it could collapse too. Want to try it?"

Remus rolled his eyes and Sirius grinned.

James was further ahead of them and suddenly put out his wand.

"Wh-"

"Shh!" he hushed them.

Remus grabbed one of Sirius's arms and one of Peter's so they wouldn't get separated in the darkness of the cave, and Sirius led them up to stand by James.

Remus put out his wand as well when he saw what had startled James so much.

Light was coming from a little cavern ahead of them, and now that they were quiet, they could also hear voices, though they couldn't quite make out what was being said.

"We can't get caught down here," James said. "I like my spot on the team too much."

"I like my head," Sirius agreed. "And McGonagall would take it if she knew we were down here. But I want to know what they're up to."

"And there's no good reason for them to be down here," Remus quietly agreed.

"We should investigate," Sirius determined.

"You up to a little reconnaissance, Wormtail?" James asked.

Peter swallowed. "What if they see me?"

James scoffed at this. "A rat in a cave? I'm sure they've seen a lot of rats, it's nothing unusual."

"But-"

"He's too afraid," Sirius said, sounding disgusted.

"But-"

"You don't have to go," James said, obvious disappointment in his voice. "But no one else can- we're too big, and Moony's not exactly easy to change into."

Remus opened his mouth to argue with them and tell Peter not to go, but then Peter agreed. "I-I'll go," he said, and looked to James and Sirius for approval. James grinned and patted his back, and Sirius looked pleased as well.

Peter looked terrified, but changed into Wormtail and quietly slipped away.

Remus sighed and wondered why his young friend was so gullible.

The three remaining marauders exchanged looks and then sat down against the walls of the cave, lighting one of the wands again, but keeping it very low.

And they waited.

And waited.

And waited.

"How long has he been gone?" Sirius asked.

"Four minutes," Remus answered promptly.

"Oh."

They waited longer.

"How about now?" asked James.

Remus didn't need to look at his watch. "Six."

More waiting.

Sirius sighed. "Now?"

Remus gave him a dirty look. "Nine."

More silence. James opened his mouth, but Remus let out what sounded suspiciously like a growl and tossed his watch to the dark haired duo.

James and Sirius exchanged triumphant looks, which Remus saw and didn't appreciate.

"Let's play I Spy," said Sirius.

'Let's not and say we did," said Remus.

Together, James and Sirius looked horrified. "But that would be _lying_!"

Another moment passed.

"How long has he been gone now?" James asked.

Remus looked at his wrist, then remembered that James had his watch. "Prat," he grumbled.

James snickered.

They didn't speak much after that, trying to listen to the voices ahead of them.

The silence stretched on and on, and they all started to grow a little bit more worried.

"It's been almost fifteen minutes," James murmured. "We shouldn't have sent him."

"I was about to say that until he caved in," Remus said. "Sirius could have gone just as easily."

"I should have just put on my cloak," James said.

"Nah," said Sirius. "He'll blend right in, better than you with your cloak. Not to mention you're a noisy git." James opened his mouth to argue, offended, but Sirius cut him off. "Speak of the devil."

Peter was changing back into his human form, breathing heavily. "It's a lot farther up there than it looks," he said. "There's a huge room, and there's lots of boxes in it, and it looks like there's a potion's lab too. I couldn't tell what was in the boxes. There were two wizards though. They looked like they hadn't taken a bath in a month."

"What were they talking about?" James asked.

"Quidditch," Peter answered. "The Cannons."

"That's it?" James asked, disappointed.

Peter shrugged. "They looked like they were guarding the stuff in there though."

"Guarding things in a cave all the way back here?" Remus murmured. "Strange."

"Is it worth checking it out?" James wondered. "Any idea what was in the boxes? Were there words on them?"

"I couldn't read them," Peter said. "They were too high up."

"Well," Sirius said. "We'll have to come back later. Maybe Sunday?"

Christmas was on Friday, on Boxing Day they would be too busy enjoying their new presents- and visiting Hogsmeade- but they had no plans for Sunday.

"Right then," said James. "Let's get out of here. Sunday, we'll come in ready for anything."


	3. Chapter 2

Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Timeline: This story is meant to take place in MWPP's fifth year. I began writing it a very long time ago, before the fifth book even came out. I think I've changed everything so it's cannon friendly, but I'm sorry if I missed anything…  
Summary: "They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally, they became heroes." MWPP get mixed up in a dangerous business...  
Characters: MWPP

*****  
Chapter Two  
*****

Having spent the previous days eating and drinking and playing and thoroughly enjoying themselves, all the while innocently insisting that they had no idea where Albert got the idea that they had a secret way to get to Hogsmeade, the foursome set out to spend the Sunday after Christmas down at the caves.

"I didn't think about it in time," James said. "But we should have done this Christmas morning."

Even Sirius looked at him askance. "And miss Christmas?" he blurted out, horrified.

James rolled his eyes. "Of course not. But they might not have had guards out then, or maybe fewer. It's too late to worry about it now."

They went down the stairs.

Remus slowed down towards the end of the stairs, looking down at the map.

He glanced back at them, his frown telling them to be quiet, and the other three peered over his shoulder to look at the map, where he was pointing.

"Professor Ascott?" James said, surprised.

"Maybe he needs a broom," Peter said uncertainly.

But as they watched, the dot representing their new Defense Against Dark Arts teacher passed through the wall and entered the tunnel.

There was a long, awkward silence.

James took a seat on the steps, resting his chin in one hand and frowning in thought. "I don't know what to say," he said finally.

Sirius mirrored his pose. "I'm flummoxed."

"Befuddled," James agreed.

"Nonplussed."

"Bewildered."

"Discombobulated."

"Good one. Perplexed."

"Mystified."

"Stumped-"

"Enough," Remus groaned, scowling at them.

The two shot him matching grins before they grew serious again. "What do we do?" Peter asked, glancing nervously at the corridor that led to the closet.

Sirius and James looked at each other, then stood up. "We follow him," said James, and led the way.

James and Remus held their breath and Sirius and Peter sat still at their legs as Ascott walked by, carrying a pair of bags, one in each hand.

Their map had shown enough to let them trail behind him, but the lights in the occupied cavern were much brighter than they'd encountered on their first trip, and they'd stayed back out of fear of getting caught. Peter had dared to try to follow him, but had returned with the news that there were four wizards there, not including the professor, and they'd used a spell to keep anyone from understanding.

All he'd seen was the professor handing over a sack, which had been opened to reveal several potions in different bottles, and then he'd seen the professor receive two more bags in return.

No sooner had that been revealed that the professor had emerged from the cavern, heading in their direction. They'd scrambled for cover under James's cloak, and Peter had shrunk down into his rat form. Sirius had changed too and had ducked back under the cloak to hide at their feet.

James made a mental note to look into acquiring a larger cloak, because quite honestly, this one was just too small for the four of them, since he wasn't really into snuggling with Remus.

His mind darted off as he pondered snuggling with someone else, but Sirius shifting at his feet brought him back to the present.

They waited a few minutes for the professor to get by, and Remus lit his wand to check the map to see his progress. Once he was halfway down the tunnel, they followed him.

"I want to look into what he's got there," Sirius said once they were safely back in Gryffindor tower.

James tugged off his robes, which had gotten dirty, and replaced them with fresh ones. "I do too. I can't figure out what they could be doing down there, but it can't be good. I want to know what they're hiding. Wormtail's not exactly very good at reconnaissance."

Peter flushed. "I couldn't see," he said defensively. "And they were using a spell so I couldn't hear them."

Unless he'd poked his rat head into the bubble, James thought, but didn't say. Wormtail got so defensive sometimes, it wasn't worth bothering with. He frowned at Sirius when his friend started to, and Sirius rolled his eyes but shut up.

"Tonight, let's try to find out what Ascott's got going on," James said.

"It'd be easier if we just waited until classes started again," Remus said.

"Maybe he's taking advantage of that and doing it now, so it's harder," James said. "We can handle it. Sirius, you're on curses that they might be using to protect his office. I'll do hexes and jinxes. Padfoot, Wormtail you're on guard tonight. Lupin, you and I will do the dirty work. We'll go at oh-one-hundred."


	4. Chapter 3

Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Timeline: This story is meant to take place in MWPP's fifth year. I began writing it a very long time ago, before the fifth book even came out. I think I've changed everything so it's cannon friendly, but I'm sorry if I missed anything…  
Summary: "They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally, they became heroes." MWPP get mixed up in a dangerous business...  
Characters: MWPP

*****  
Chapter Three  
*****

Sneaking into Ascott's rooms proved easier than they'd thought it would be. Halfway through dinner that night, Ascott got an owl. Surprised, he read it and quickly burned it before leaving the table with hardly a word to anyone.

The four boys exchanged looks and skipped dessert to leave early, paying particular attention to the Slytherin table so as to make the professors think that they were the targets.

It was likely- they'd been so involved with the mystery of the caves that they'd not even cursed a Slytherin first year anytime recently.

Better to keep the professors occupied with protecting the Slytherins from imaginary harm than to have them seeking out the four mischief makers at an inconvenient time.

They posted their guard- Peter- at the top of the stairs. Sirius took position outside the office. Both were in their Animagus form which allowed them to hide better.

James and Remus broke into the office itself.

It was far from the first time they'd secretly entered their Dark Art's professor's office, though the previous years they had different professors, and they moved about with familiarity, quietly searching for anything unusual and for the two bags they'd seen him carrying.

But it was finally apparent that, if he had anything hidden away, it was not in the storage unit.

"I wouldn't hide it in there either," James said, his eyes locked onto the other door in the classroom.

"You're joking, right?" Remus hissed. "That's his private room. If we get caught in there-"

"We won't get caught," James said confidently. "_Alohomora_!"

Remus cringed, but followed him in. Both kept their wands out, wary of any surprises that might get unwanted intruders.

James tuned out Remus's quiet mutterings, worries that they would get caught and expelled, and concentrated on searching through the room.

There was nothing under the bed, or in the dresser drawers, or in the closet or the armoire. Under the chairs or on them, and he grew frustrated as they continued searching with no luck finding anything.

Remus sighed as he shoved a chair back into place and stood up. "I don't see anything," he said.

"I don't either," said James with a great deal of reluctance. "I guess..."

They both stopped short as they heard a bark.

James grabbed his cloak and threw it around his shoulders, grabbing Remus and pulling him under as well.

The two went for the door back to the classroom, then drew back as Ascott entered, his cape flowing behind him.

"Two days," Ascott was muttering as he passed by them. "Something that sensitive..." He dropped a book on the table and flipped it open. "...should have stayed in Canterbury," he muttered. "Idiots!"

Under the cloak, Remus and James exchanged looks. James pointed at the book the professor was opening and Remus reluctantly nodded before they moved towards the table.

To their surprise, it seemed that he was preparing a potion. James remembered hearing that he was well thought of for his potion making skills, and that Slughorn spent a lot of time with him.

But it still made no sense that he'd be making what seemed to be a very complicated potion in the middle of the night.

The professor began gathering ingredients and his irritation was obvious as he set some vials down with such force that it was a surprise that they did not break. Must have been charmed to be unbreakable, James thought.

On the opposite side of the table of the professor, the two leaned over to look at the book, careful to stay back from any ingredients.

More than one plot had been destroyed by catching a whiff of nasty smelling ingredients, and they weren't in a hurry to have it happen again.

James had never been good at reading upside down and squinted at the pages, turning his head.

But Remus seemed to be doing well, though he didn't look pleased by what he was reading.

James let him finish and watched the professor as he began tossing things into a cauldron, carefully stirring, obviously following the directions closely, as he kept looking back at them.

Remus tensed beside him and elbowed him to make sure he had his attention. He pointed towards the door and they made their way across the room. "Silver," Remus breathed, ever so quietly, and James grimaced and glanced back. He reached out and carefully turned the door handle and pushed it open.

The door made no sound until they were half out the door.

Then it squeaked.

Both froze, looking up to see the professor looking at the door.

Remus grabbed James's arm and pulled him through the rest of the way.

Sirius, in his dog form, growled ever so softly, smelling them but not seeing them, and they ducked around the other side of the door, a dead end hallway that the professor would never expect they'd go towards.

They covered Sirius with the cloak just as Ascott swept out, his wand in hand, his expression dark as he glanced in both directions. His eyes were wide and his expression fierce as he looked down the halls for some trace of the intruder.

They didn't dare breath.

Ascott cursed under his breath and James raised an eyebrow. He'd never heard of that particular use for a wand.

Ascott reentered the potions room and slammed the door, and James was certain he would put some kind of spell on it now to keep intruders out.

They kept the cloak on until they were up the stairs and had found Peter, who was watching the map so intently he didn't even realize they were there.

He squeaked as he realized they'd walked up to him, and then relief washed over his face. "You scared me," he complained.

"Shh," Remus said, hushing him. "Back to the tower."

"So what was the potion?" James asked in a low voice once they'd filled Sirius and Peter in on what they hadn't really found- namely, anything of importance.

"I got the name of it, but I don't know what it does," Remus answered, shrugging. "I got most of the ingredients too- that's why we left, because I saw what was next - so maybe we can find it in the library."

"Prefect Lupin ought to be able to manage that," Sirius said. "Since the bloody librarian won't let us in the library for another two weeks."

"Three," James said with a roguish grin. "I, uh, gave her a little present of gratitude."

Peter grinned in amusement until Remus reminded him that it meant he had to help with the research now.

"Oh," he said, dejectedly.

"Just means you're an essential part of the group," James said cheerfully as he leaned back in his chair.

They'd decided to enjoy the almost empty common room instead of going up to their dorm.

The three other Gryffindors who had remained behind were sitting over by the window playing exploding snap. They were a trio of siblings whose parents were away for the holidays. James and his friends were on friendly terms with them, but the oldest, a sixth year, was quite aware that they were up to something and kept his brother and sister away from them.

James studied them for a moment before returning his attention to his friends. "So what's he up to?" he asked the other three.

"Making potions on the side, I'm sure," Remus said. "I can't imagine Hogwarts pays all that well."

"I bet it's illegal, whatever it is," Sirius declared.

"You say that about every professor," James said. "You just want to be right for once."

Sirius snorted and crossed his arms.

They bantered back and forth for a bit, but no one had any bright ideas, and Remus finally got up, stretching. "I think we're done for the night," Remus said.

"Right," James agreed. "You two get to the library while Padfoot and I are at practice tomorrow. We'll discuss what you've found tomorrow night."

Remus and Peter went to bed, while Sirius and James said they wanted to stay up a bit longer and chat.

When the other two were gone, and the room was empty except for them, they set down to business.

Best friends since they'd met on the train and discovered a fondness for jokes and tricks in first year, they thought alike and didn't need to explain to the other what they were thinking. Namely, that they wanted to investigate further, without Moony along to caution them, and Wormtail along to panic about it.

"Should we go tonight?" Sirius asked.

"Not until Remus and Peter are too distracted to think about it," James said. "They wouldn't like us going without them."

"We'll tell them we're going pranking then," Sirius said. "Next week or so."

"Right," James agreed. "I didn't want to say it in front of Remus and Peter, but I've got a few ideas about what's going on. I've been thinking about those articles in the _Prophet_ lately."

Sirius nodded. "The unicorns and the werewolf. Hogsmeade's a good place to set up that sort of operation. Not too many Aurors, a lot of visitors to the school... Perfect cover for illicit activities like smuggling and illegal goods trading."

They exchanged grins, excited by the idea of having found something so illegal, but also somewhat worried about it, even if neither would admit it.

"I'm going to the library tonight," James said. "I want to look up the old clippings and see if there's anything useful in them. And maybe if we find that potion, we can keep Moony and Wormtail distracted hunting for it."

"Sounds good," Sirius said. "Want company?"

It was asked with a devilish grin.

James gave him a scathing look. "Last time you went with me, we both ended up in detention for a month."

"Yeah," Sirius said fondly. "Wasn't it great?"


	5. Chapter 4

Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Timeline: This story is meant to take place in MWPP's fifth year. I began writing it a very long time ago, before the fifth book even came out. I think I've changed everything so it's cannon friendly, but I'm sorry if I missed anything…  
Summary: "They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally, they became heroes." MWPP get mixed up in a dangerous business...  
Characters: MWPP

A belated thank you to sunxsand and Obsessivebookdiva for your reviews. I hope you enjoy this chapter and the rest. :)

*****  
Chapter Four  
*****

A week later, James and Sirius went out to check out the caves again, not telling their friends that they were going there, but that they were going to check up on the Hufflepuffs and cause a bit of trouble.

Remus rolled his eyes and told them not to prank them, but no one expected his words to mean anything.

Without Remus and Peter along, it was a lot easier to move quietly.

Peter had an annoying habit of tripping at the worst moments. Remus was always the voice of caution, and it got obnoxious sometimes.

The tandem moved in silence down the long tunnel, relaxed and unworried- or at least projecting that, though both were more nervous than they let on.

Voices had them slowing down as they entered the caves. The boys exchanged looks, then continued on towards them.

"-disgusting, mate," someone announced, and the sound of retching could be heard almost immediately after.

Grimacing because the sounds were almost enough to induce the action, the boys came closer until they could see into the cavern where the voices came from.

There were probably five men in there.

Three were watching the other two as they mutilated the carcass of a pair of animals - one that looked like a baby dragon, of all things, and the other that both boys were horrified to recognize as a werewolf. It had to have been killed at the last full moon, or it would have been in its human form, which meant they'd aged the body...

The urge to be sick got stronger and he wasn't finding any amusement in the situation anymore.

"D'you know what this'll be worth to us?" the one working on the werewolf said. "The bloody pelts alone are worth more galleons that you'll see in a year. All that, and you're too 'fraid to even look at 'em."

"I ain't afraid," one of them grumbled. "Jus' don't like the guts and blood, that's all."

"Relax, Arch, it'll be over soon," the one at the dragon said as he cut the scales of the dragon away.

James cringed and had to look away when he saw them continuing. Sirius looked uncomfortable too, and James hoped that his sense of smell- amplified ever since they'd succeeded with the Animagus transformations at the start of the year- wasn't kicking in.

The waited silently for a few minutes, listening for anything that would offer more evidence of what was going on, then backed up until they could whisper.

"We'll have to tell someone," James said, very quietly.

"Tell them what?" Sirius said sharply. "That we were out and about when we shouldn't have been, where we shouldn't have been, and managed to sneak up on some blokes that somehow didn't see us even after we got close enough to see what they were doing and hear them talking?"

The two stared at each other for a long moment, both dissatisfied with their options. "We'll send in an anonymous tip," Sirius finally said. "Tell them to check out the caves, and we'll give them everything we've got on them."

"I guess that's the best we can do," James muttered.

The two reluctantly left the caves behind.

"Are you sure you haven't seen any of them?" Lily was asking her friend as they came down the stairs the next morning. "Maybe it just got knocked over, are you sure you looked under your beds?" Her face was flushed and she looked both irritated and worried.

Her friend didn't look particularly happy either. "I'm sure," Andrea said. "I looked all over with you, remember?"

"Well, I'm missing a bunch of stuff too," Jean said grimly, following behind them. "I think we have a thief in the tower."

"What's that?" Remus asked, looking at the threesome with concern.

Lily's eyes flashed with fury. "Have you figured out how to get upstairs?" she demanded, giving the four friends a less than pleasant look.

James looked at Sirius. "If you did and you haven't shared with me-"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "No," he said. "Or else you'd know by now, Evans." He gave her a smirk, then grimaced as he realized how that could be taken. "Only because you'd hear me, not because I'd be bothering _you_, I mean."

"I'd be bothering you," James assured her.

Lily glared at them, unimpressed.

"Then it's got to be a thief," Jean declared. "Someone's taken off with all of our valuables. That pin you got Lily, James, and my Grandmum's earrings and about ten galleons in pin money."

"We're missing stuff too," a girl said. She was younger than them, and looked quite concerned. "My father is going to _kill_ me if I don't find my money. He just gave me some for the rest of the year."

A few other voices chimed in asking questions, and several students went to check on their own items.

James glanced at Sirius, unease in him. "Better take a look upstairs, Padfoot."

A thief was one thing, but if they'd gone in their room...

Well, there were certain things that no one should be taking a look at, aside from the map and the cloak and small pieces of evidence of Remus's condition, and not to mention that they did have a handful of valuables themselves.

Sirius disappeared up the stairs.

"Is this some sort of prank?" one of the seventh year girls asked, joining them and putting her hands on her hips as she glared at James.

He sighed. "We get no respect," he muttered before looking at her, and then at the others who seemed to be suspicious. "If we were going to do something like this, we'd make sure it would be funny, and that we would get credit for it," he explained with exaggerated patience, though he was a little offended that everyone was assuming it was them. There was a big difference between a practical joke and stealing things.

"That's true," Jean said. "At least that they'd have a reason for it. They're not the thieving types."

Not everyone looked convinced. James made a mental note to take Jean off of their list of people to prank for a while, since she at least believed him.

There was a murmur as the news spread and more students came down to report missing items.

James was worried, but dread settled in the pit of his stomach when Sirius came down the stairs with an awful expression on his face. "We're in trouble," he said shortly.

"What's gone?" James asked, pulling him aside so they could have some privacy.

"Among other things," Sirius said, "your cloak's gone missing."


	6. Chapter 5

Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Timeline: This story is meant to take place in MWPP's fifth year. I began writing it a very long time ago, before the fifth book even came out. I think I've changed everything so it's cannon friendly, but I'm sorry if I missed anything…  
Summary: "They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally, they became heroes." MWPP get mixed up in a dangerous business...  
Characters: MWPP

*****  
Chapter Five  
*****

While luck saved the foursome- James's cloak had just been tucked in the rucksack that Peter had grabbed to carry his books around for the day in, and they still had it in their hands - it turned out that the rest of the tower had not been so lucky.

Jewelry, a handful of some of the more expensive trinkets that students were wont to keep, and a few other easily resold items had gone missing.

It was even more disturbing when the Hufflepuffs announced that they'd been victimized as well two nights later.

It no longer was odd for Ravenclaws and Slytherins to walk around with heavy backpacks, all of their jewelry and the money they'd been given for the semester on their person in some way shape or form.

The professors were quite unhappy, and interviewed a great many suspects.

James and Sirius were among the suspects, of course, but McGonagall didn't seem to believe they were the culprits any more than their classmates, who had, after a bit of debate, agreed that it was nothing like what the boys did for fun, and therefore, they were probably not the guilty party.

Seated in class one Thursday afternoon a week after the thefts had been discovered, James passed Sirius a note.

_I want to go back_, he wrote.

Sirius did not seems surprised. _What for?_

James just looked at him, and Sirius shrugged and gave up on whispering. "I don't think there's a connection, Prongsy. What's the odds that they're stealing _and_ killing werewolves?"

"Don't call me that," James dared to mutter out loud, glancing up to make sure Slughorn was happily occupied with some of his suck ups and wouldn't notice that their full attention was not on the wretched smelling brews in front of them. "I want to have a look," he said in a low voice. "And I want to get into Ascott's office again. Something's not right about him."

"You just want him to be working with them," Sirius said. "Ever since he marked you down for that paper on vampires..."

James rolled his eyes, though it did add a little fuel to his desire to take down Ascott. "We've seen him in that tunnel," he said. "It's not like a whole lot of other people have gone that way. He's up to something and I want to know what."

"All right," Sirius agreed, without arguing any further, assuring James that Sirius thought there was something strange going on as well. "But it's almost Mooney's time of the month, and I don't think he should go."

James nodded. "We'll leave him and Peter here again, and go tonight. We don't want to wear him out before the big night, after all."

"Good," Sirius said, and they both pretended to be working on their potion when Slughorn came by again.

It was satisfying to know that their all night sneaking was getting them results.

The caves were still filled with the scent of blood and danger, and there were four men down there, three of them eating.

The fourth, a new one they hadn't seen before, was busy packaging up the freshly prepared wolfskin and unicorn horn. James and Sirius exchanged a look, both figuring that they were preparing their illegally taken merchandise for sale on the black market. It made sense that they would feel confident in their long time hideout and would not believe they were being watched.

But that wasn't what really drew their attention- scattered on one of the tables was a large pile of jewelry and gold, and small trinkets of value.

James was willing to bet his right antler that there were things from Hogwarts students mixed in there as well.

"Do you recognize anything?" Sirius asked, his tone very low in an attempt to keep them hidden.

"Not from here," James answered. "I need to take a closer look."

Sirius rolled his eyes, but didn't look surprised. They drew back a little ways and Sirius shrugged off the cloak, slipping into his Animagus form to help hide in the shadows.

James pulled the cloak snugly around him, not wanting to have anything that could be tripped on by either him or someone who showed up and walked too close, and moved forward to the table.

It was probably a rather stupid idea, as it was a lot easier to get caught when rummaging around in a pile of jewelry right under their noses than it was when they hid in the shadows and just watched and speculated, but James wasn't a Gryffindor for nothing.

But even as he got close enough to see some of the smaller pieces on the table, one of the men who'd been eating his supper stood up, stretching and walking towards the table. "I s'pose I ought to get back to this," he said. "Playing with the pretty baubles."

"How close are you to being done?" one of the other eaters asked. "We'll need to get rid of those pretty quickly. Ascott said they already knew they were missing."

Ascott! James thought with a sort of triumph. So, he was tangled up in this mess for sure.

"Not long, not long. Look at this one, mates," he said, and held up a rather large diamond pendent. "Now that's one that'd get me in Betsy's good graces for a time to come."

"Or it's one that will pay off our debtors and get them off our backs," the one at the potions snapped. "Just can it, Pea Brain, and get it sorted so we can get rid of it. I, for one, don't fancy playing servant to them for much longer than this. No matter whose good graces I'd get in for drawing it out a bit longer," he added with a sneer at Pea Brain.

James silently dubbed the one on the left who was still eating Tall, Dark, and Dumb, and his dining companion as Princess.

He was probably twice James's height and had biceps that bulged out of his shirt, but it wasn't like James was planning on sharing the nickname with him any time soon. The one who was packaging up the wolfskin he called Sluggy, because he was reminded of his Potions Professor.

Pea Brain grunted with irritation and shoved the diamond aside after making a quick notation on a piece of parchment before he picked up a gold encrusted snuff box and looked it over. He cast a quick diagnostic spell that assured him it was real gold and it joined the diamond.

The next pieces he picked up infuriated James as soon as he saw it- it was Lily's brooch.

He fought the urge to snatch it back from him. It confirmed that they were the Hogwarts thieves, and also made it a bit more personal.

He wanted it back.

For a few minutes, he remained where he was, looking around for a way to cause a distraction.

Then he heard a quiet, familiar sounding splat coming from the darkness outside of the cavern they were in.

Heads looked up. "What was that?" Tall, Dark, and Dumb asked.

"Dunno," Princess said, standing and reaching for his wand. "Let's find out."

But he took half a step forward, then a large step back, nearly gagging at the stench that met him. He cursed colorfully, and Tall, Dark, and Dumb jumped up and tried to back away as well.

James caught a whiff of a Dung Bomb, and made a mental note to thank Sirius. After killing him for raising up that stink, anyway.

Pea Brain set aside the earrings. "What the bloody hell is that?" he demanded.

"Go find out!" Sluggy ordered, suddenly appearing on James's other side.

But the attention was all on the dark caves, and so James dared to reach out and place an edge of the cloak over the brooch and pull it off the table and into his hand.

No one noticed.

He took a chance and tried again, and came away with a piece of parchment with a long list of words and numbers on it, and he tucked it into his pocket.

He backed away, a smirk of triumph on his face, and slipped around the tables as the two bruisers moved to investigate.

Sirius was, of course, in the other direction already, waiting as Padfoot.

They didn't bother to greet each other. Padfoot sniffed the air and moved forward towards the tunnel between the caves and the castle, and they didn't bother to speak or come out of their disguises until halfway there and safely out of earshot.

"Brilliant idea with the Dung Bomb," James complimented.

Sirius glared at him. "What took you so long? I figured you were caught somewhere and couldn't move, so I had to set it off. It was one of the new ones, too."

James lost his smile. "I wasn't caught," he said, but while he appreciated that his friend took a risk for him, he also knew what that meant. Zonko's had offered them the new Dung Bombs at a special price, so they could test it and report on how well it worked. The boys had liked them too much, and had bought out the whole supply and were the only ones at Hogwarts with any of them.

Which meant that they were fairly traceable.

"I banished it," Sirius said unhappily, "But they might be able to figure out that it's the new ones anyway."

"Hell," James muttered. He slipped his hand in his pocket and pulled out the jewelry he'd snagged. "It wasn't an entire waste of time," he said, showing it to Sirius. "At least now we know that they're the Hogwarts thieves."

"Dumbledore's gone until next week, and McGonagall's still gone at the funeral," Remus reported as he returned to his seat. His expression was grim, and no one could blame him.

James and Sirius had told Remus and Peter what all they'd seen in their trips to the caves as soon as the other two had woken up that morning, and Remus hadn't taken news of the it well.

James couldn't blame him, and knew they wouldn't be leaving the Shrieking Shack until the mess was cleared up.

Remus had been angry, and had told them if they didn't tell Dumbledore themselves, he would.

They'd sent another letter off to the Ministry, but so far there had been no response.

"If Ascott's involved, Dumbledore needs to be able to deal with it," James said. "Slughorn's incompetent, and I don't see us telling Sprout or Flitwick, you?"

Remus grimaced. "Yeah, but we need to do something. It's Friday, that gives them five days until Dumbledore gets back."

"I don't get why the Ministry isn't doing something," Peter said. He'd been mostly quiet through the discussion. "You'd think they'd at least send somebody by there."

There was another long silence.

The conversation was ended as the fifth year girls sat down next to them, talking about their last Charms class.

It was a testament to how concerned they all were when James didn't even harass Lily during the meal, who was sitting two seats down from him and looking very fetching in a dark green sweater.


	7. Chapter 6

Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Timeline: This story is meant to take place in MWPP's fifth year. I began writing it a very long time ago, before the fifth book even came out. I think I've changed everything so it's cannon friendly, but I'm sorry if I missed anything…  
Summary: "They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally, they became heroes." MWPP get mixed up in a dangerous business...  
Characters: MWPP

Happy birthday to me! :)

*****  
Chapter Six  
*****

The last class before the weekend was Potions.

"Mr. Pettigrew," Ascott said as he got to the table that he and Remus were seated at. "See me after class."

Surprised and alarmed, especially now that he knew what Ascott was involved in, Peter couldn't exactly argue with him, but nodded meekly.

Sirius and James exchanged alarmed looks.

Remus had a Prefect meeting and wasn't going to be there at the end of class, and the two of them had been told to be fifteen minutes early to every Care for Magical Creatures class for the next two months in order to make up for all the times they had been late, or they'd be kicked out.

James waited until Ascott had moved on before he reached forward and tapped Jean on the shoulder. "Hey," he said. "I need a favor."

"I'm not going to get Lily to go out with you," she muttered. "Be quiet, Potter, I'm trying to work here."

"It's important," James said, not allowing himself to make a snarky comment about how he didn't need her help to get Lily to go out with him.

She sighed. "What?" she asked sharply.

"Can you stick around after class and wait for Pete to catch up? He's afraid of Ascott, and we can't wait for him."

Jean stared at him, then at Peter, who couldn't hear what he was saying. She rolled her eyes. "No, I will not be an assistant in one of your pranks," she said firmly, and faced the front again.

"Well that was rude," Sirius muttered.

"We'll have to get her for that," James said, irritated, forgetting his vow not to prank her after she'd defended them to the rest of the Gryffindors.

"Got it," Sirius said confidently, and in a casual move, dropped under the table.

James watched for Ascott, but even before there was cause to warn his friend, Sirius was back in his seat. "She'll regret that, all right," he said. "I uncapped a bottle of ink in her bag." Simple, but effective and untraceable, and a big pain to deal with after.

"Class is dismissed," Ascott announced, and they all stood up.

James turned to look at Peter. "Don't sweat it," he muttered. "Ascott can't do anything to you. You'll be fine."

"Right," said Sirius. "And if you're not, well, we'll be in Potions, just come running."

Peter did not look particularly consoled, though he did brighten somewhat when Sirius dug through his bag and got out the mirror that he and James had enchanted so they could talk back and forth.

James glanced uneasily back and was disconcerted by the way Ascott was watching them.

Peter ran into the classroom, his face white with terror, and stopped cold when he realized everyone was looking at him.

"Something wrong, Mr. Pettigrew?" Professor Mudwash asked.

Peter flushed. "Um, no sir. P-P-Professor Ascot..."

"Yes, yes, your friends have already explained. Sit down and catch up. Now, who can tell me the proper feeding method for bowtruckles. Yes, Ms. Evans?"

He beamed at her, and was sufficiently distracted so that he didn't notice when James and Sirius motioned for him to join them.

Peter looked bewildered and pleased that they'd actually separated from one another, and the seat next to James was available for him, as Sirius and Remus had partnered for the day.

"What happened?" Remus asked.

"He knows," Peter whispered. "He knows!"

"What?" James hissed. "What do you mean? _What_ does he know?"

"Gentlemen," Mudwash said, an air of impatience in his voice. "Unless you'd like to be separated for the next three years, I think it's time you quieted down and paid attention. Bowtruckles will be on your exams."

James noticed that Lily Evans was hiding a smirk and smiled sweetly back at her.

She turned away in a huff.

Remus passed a piece of parchment up and James leaned over to watch Peter write in his untidy handwriting, evidently knowing he was too nervous to try to whisper it- he tended to babble when he was uneasy, and they'd hushed him too late on more than one occasion.

_he told me that he'd hurt us if we went there again_, he wrote.

_He said the caves?_ James wrote, glancing to make sure Mudwash was distracted again.

_he said the dungbombs were ours and he knows about your cloak. said parchment was missing and wanted it back._

James passed it back to Sirius and Remus, and after a minute, craned his neck to see their worried expressions. Sirius met his gaze for a moment, frowning, and they both silently agreed to check out the parchment again, though it seemed to be just a list of the jewelry they'd taken.

After a moment, Sirius handed them the paper back.

_We'll tell Prof. D. as soon as we can. We should avoid him until then. Hgsmd tomorrow. Owl aurors again._

James glanced back and nodded, though uneasy.

_Maybe we should tell sprout or Flitwick. Short, but tough._

James passed the note back.

Sirius snorted loud enough that a few people looked at him, and there was no need for him to write his reply.

Flitwick was so absent minded sometimes that he'd probably get in a duel and start lecturing his opponent on the proper charms to use.

Peter still looked worried. James purposely made himself look like he wasn't.

Even though there was an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach, and he really wished Dumbledore hadn't decided to disappear all of a sudden.

The next day was a Saturday and the four went to Hogsmeade with the rest of the school, figuring that it was probably safer than staying in the castle with Ascott.

They cast uneasy looks around, but when the day progressed without any signs of trouble, they relaxed a bit and resumed some of their normal activities.

Still, they stuck to the center of town and didn't misbehave.

In fact, they spent most of the day at the Three Broomsticks until they had all had so much Butterbeer that they were ready to be sick. Despite their best efforts, they hadn't been able to get anything stronger out of the barkeep or his fetching daughter, Rosemerta.

Still, either the sugar high or the low alcohol content in such great quantities had made Sirius quite cheery and even more amusing than normal, and as they and a handful of others made their way back to the castle, he and Peter had a race to see who could walk backwards fastest.

James and Remus fell back until the rest of the group was out of earshot.

"I want to write to Dumbledore," Remus said. "He needs to know about this sooner rather than later."

James looked at him, then nodded. "Maybe you're right. Ascott can't really do anything, but..." He glanced ahead and behind him, making sure no one could hear them talking. There was no one within sight. "I've been wondering if they're going to clear out the caves before Dumbledore's back."

"I was wondering that too," Remus said. "I'm worried that if we don't do it soon... Hell, they could already be gone." He quickly looked at James. "I'm not suggesting that we go find out, mind you."

"I know," James said. He glanced back at the village. "We could go back and send an owl from the village," he said. "The post office has owls that are faster than any of ours."

"Yeah," Remus said. "Let's do that. It'd just be... better all around, you know?"

James nodded. "All right," he said, and brought his hand up to his mouth to whistle loudly for Sirius.

Before he could, there was a flash of red light, and Remus let out a grunt and fell forward.

"What-" James started, then saw two men lurching forward out of the bushes by the side of the road.

He reached for his wand, but they were already there- he stumbled backwards, but did not manage to avoid the Stunner that knocked him out.

A scream came from behind them. It wasn't an amused scream or a playful type- this one had fear in it.

The group all heard it and froze, and Sirius and Peter instinctively turned towards it. "What the hell?" Sirius asked out loud, and took off running towards it.

He got there just in time to see two dark cloaked wizards leaning over Remus and James and disapparating with them, even as two other students were drawing their wands and preparing to fire at the strangers.

All that was left behind was Remus's wand, the bag of candy James had been carrying, and a crumpled up note that Sirius read with disbelief and found to be a warning from the smugglers based in the caves.

"I never thought..." Robert Potter said weakly. "I just never thought that he'd be in danger here. At Hogwarts."

James's mother squeezed his hand tightly, her face pale and her eyes brimming with tears.

"They'll be fine," Remus's father said. He looked tired and sick too. "They'll be fine," he repeated, and it seemed as though he was trying to convince himself as much as anyone else.

"We're hoping that they'll come forward with a ransom," McGonagall said quietly. "Albus is talking with Alastor Moody now, and they're still hoping to trace the jump points they used for the disapparation."

"But the odds of that working are slim," Robert said. He glanced at Sirius and Remus apologetically. "I'm sorry," he said. "This is just..."

"Unreal," Peter muttered.

Sirius didn't look at them. He could feel the note in his pocket, could picture the words on the parchment in his head and could hear the clock ticking. He looked over at it and was surprised how late it was.

He felt oddly calm. "I'm going back to the Tower," he said.

He needed to get James's cloak and the map. Peter probably had it.

They'd need other things too, anything that might help them, might provide a secret weapon.

"Sirius," Mrs. Potter said, standing and setting a hand on his shoulder in a motherly way. "James and Remus will be fine. I know you're as worried about them as we are, and I don't want you to feel excluded from any of this. And at the same time, if you can think of anything that might give us clues, please tell us."

Sirius just nodded. "Thanks, Mrs. P," he said, and shut his eyes for a moment when she hugged him tightly, then turned away when she did the same to Peter.

Peter followed him out, and Sirius heard the Potters and Lupins saying that they knew how much James and Remus cared about their friends, and McGonagall agreed.

"I can't believe it," Peter said as they reached the hallway. "Who would do this?"

Sirius glanced around before he answered, making sure the hallway was empty. He grabbed the note and showed it to Peter. "It's them," he said. "Ascott. They did this."

Peter's face lost what little color he'd had left. "I... I... what do we do? Why didn't you tell McGonagall?"

Sirius glanced back at the office and started walking again. "Because. It says if we tell anyone, they'll kill them."

"They won't kill them. Will they?"

"Do you know what kind of crimes they've committed? They're looking at Azkaban, Pete. Killing werewolves might be overlooked, but killing unicorns, trafficking in restricted objects, smuggling... And we don't even know what kind of potions they've been brewing. Or who they've been selling them to. If that means they have to kill some kids who saw them to make sure they don't get sent off, yeah, they're gonna do what it takes."

It took a moment for Peter to reply. Sirius understood.

It had all seemed like an amusement for so long, and even when Ascott had called Peter out on it, Sirius had still been sure that they would be safe in Dumbledore's Hogwarts.

Peter was, unsurprisingly, having an even harder time with it than Sirius was.

"But... what do they want from us? What are we supposed to do?"

"They said to wait for an owl," Sirius said. His expression became determined. He'd had time to think, time to plan what they would do. "Well, we're not waiting. We've got to rescue James and Remus before they get killed."

"W-why don't we tell Professor McGonagall and the Aurors? Then they can go in and get them."

"What if they aren't in the caves anymore? What if the Aurors get caught and we never find James and Remus again because we spooked them off?"

"But they could _kill_ us," Peter hissed.

"They won't," Sirius said. "One, we're going to sneak in with James's cloak and get them before they even know we're there. Two, even if we get caught they'll just Obliviate our memories. Three... I don't have a three, but they can't be _that_ stupid."

"Evans! Evans!"

Lily heard her name being called and turned around to see Sirius Black running towards her, his expression grim.

Normally she would have just glared at him, but it was different today. She'd already heard what had happened, and couldn't help but feel compassion for him, knowing he and Potter and Lupin were such good friends.

"Any news?" she asked, looking at him and then Peter, who tagged along behind him, panting.

"No," he said shortly. "We're, um, going to talk with Dumbledore about something. If we aren't back in three hours, open this and do what it says." He thrust a parchment into her hand.

Lily accepted it automatically, but then her brain caught up with her. "What? No, you're up to something, Black-"

"Just do it," he snapped. "Three hours, no sooner and no later!"

"Wait, come back here, what's this... about," she finished, frowning darkly at Sirius back as he ran down the hall away from her.

She looked down at the parchment and started to open it, then stopped cold. It wouldn't be beneath him to have cursed it to hex her upon opening it if it wasn't three hours from now.

She cursed under her breath, looked back down the hall after Sirius, then reluctantly resumed her trek back to Gryffindor tower, deciding that even Black wasn't stupid enough to try to rescue his friends without telling the Headmaster or some of the staff.


	8. Chapter 7

Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Timeline: This story is meant to take place in MWPP's fifth year. I began writing it a very long time ago, before the fifth book even came out. I think I've changed everything so it's cannon friendly, but I'm sorry if I missed anything…  
Summary: "They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally, they became heroes." MWPP get mixed up in a dangerous business...  
Characters: MWPP

_Exploration is really the essence of the human spirit._- Frank Borman

*****  
Chapter Seven  
*****

James woke up laying uncomfortably on his back, looking up at a dark ceiling. There were bars on the wall and dirt beneath him. He grunted with pain and pulled himself upright, noticing that Remus was sitting next to him in the same little cell, his head tilted to the side like he was trying to listen to something.

He held a hand up before James could say anything, and James figured it was the werewolf in his friend, because he couldn't hear anything but the faintest murmurs.

Finally, Remus sighed and turned. "They're too far away for me to hear. We're in the caves again, I guess."

James nodded, running his fingers through his hair and brushing out the dirt. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve, having drooled a bit while unconscious.

Remus slid back into the corner, looping his arms around his knees and looking tense and worried all in one.

Then again, they were, what, two days from the full moon? No doubt, Remus had already started worrying about what would happen in two days, if they were still stuck there.

James rubbed his head. "My head's killing me from getting stunned. You?"

Remus didn't look at him. "It's not as strong, this close to... that."

James nodded. "We'll have to remember that the next time we go after Severus, and if it's his time of the month, we'll stun him twice."

Remus glared at him, but it faded when he realized James was just trying to get him to relax. He looked down again.

James sighed and pulled himself up, testing the strength of the bars and the lock on the door. He found nothing helpful and had just taken a seat again when they heard arguing from further down in the caves.

"- _stealing _from _us_, you-" something James had heard before, but never so colorfully - "Did you think we wouldn't find out? We wouldn't _know_?"

"I'll pay it back!" another voice said, this one trembling and quieter.

"Too late for that, mate," a third voice said. "You're a traitor and a thief, and there's only one thing we do to traitors."

"Wait, no, please, let me have a chance-"

"_AVADA KEDAVRA_!"

James and Remus looked down the hall with terrified horror as they heard a horrible scream and saw green light flash.

James felt his hear racing and swallowed hard, shifting so he was on his knees, like he'd have a better chance to escape that way, though he knew he wouldn't.

He glanced at Remus, and saw his friend was equally frightened.

Worse was the words they heard after. And not even that, it was the tone- total disregard for the murder that had just been committed. Like they didn't even care.

"What ought we do with him now?" the first voice wondered.

"Let 'im rot there," the third said. "Maybe they can make a fancy potion out of his parts."

They laughed and James and Remus could hear them talking as they went further away.

The fifth year boys looked at each other, then looked away.

There was nothing to say, and nothing they could do.

Suddenly though, it was a lot scarier than it had been a few minutes before.

Sirius and Peter were hidden behind a large pile of rocks and watching as the smugglers emptied out the cave, never leaving it completely empty of people.

They still hadn't seen James or Remus yet.

"I think you'll have to do the recon, Peter," Sirius said.

Peter swallowed, lowering his head a little.

"Come on," Sirius encouraged him. "You know they won't even see you- and if they do, you just have to scurry out of there."

Peter sighed. "All right," he agreed at last, because really, he had no choice. "Where do I go?"

He sounded terrified.

Sirius couldn't blame him and wished, for the first time since he'd taken his Animagus form, that he'd changed into something smaller, more discreet. Instead he had to wait here and hope that Peter- of all of them, Peter- could do this.

"I bet that little tunnel over there," he said, trying to make it sound like he really thought Wormtail was up for it, like James spoke to him. "Follow it and see what you find."

Peter nodded and melted into the darkness and changed into Wormtail. He could feel Sirius's eyes on him as he scurried away, going around the corner into the chamber that the smugglers were using.

Everything looked distorted from what it did as a human, but he quickly adjusted. There were two men in the room that he could see, and they were busy moving boxes. Peter sniffed, trying to catch the right scents-

There. That was Remus. He had a very distinctive smell. Very… predatory, like Sirius. It masked James's scent, which was much more comforting in that his form was an herbivore and had no interest in eating rats. Peter went forward, staying near the sides of the cave, and entered another little cavern, and then another, all dimly lit by flickering torches.

He froze where he stood, in the center of the tunnel, when he realized someone was laying right there on the floor. He waited a moment, certain he was doomed, but the man never moved, and Peter realized with terror that he wasn't breathing.

He was dead.

A shudder running through his tiny body, he scurried around the body, rushing towards the cell that wasn't too far ahead.

There were actual bars there, which was terrifying in its own right- his friends were _prisoners_!

James and Remus were in the same little cell. James was leaning against the bars, his eyes closed, and Remus was leaning against the wall, staring up at the ceiling.

Peter squeaked slightly and James's head snapped forward, his eyes flying open. At the same time, Remus sat up straight and began searching for the noise.

"Wormtail," James said, his voice sounding a bit hoarse. He looked down the hall to see if anyone else was coming. "What are you doing here? Is Sirius with you?"

Peter nodded his head, not daring to change.

"Well, get out of here and get help," James said. "They're going to kill us- and if they find you, they'll kill you too."

Peter saw James glance over at Remus, and the other two exchanged dark looks. Peter wondered what that meant, but couldn't ask.

"Seriously," Remus said, very softly. "You guys get out of here and get help- get Dumbledore and tell him what's going on, don't try to do this on your own."

"Minus the parts about the cloak and the animagus," James added quickly. "You don't need to mention those parts."

"Whatever it takes though," Remus said. "But don't do anything stupid- and don't let Sirius either."

A laugh came from down the hall, followed by a door swinging open. "Get out of here," James hissed. "Just run and they won't even notice you."

Peter was scared, and didn't argue. He scurried out of the cell and ran down the hall, freezing for a split second when he saw two men walking towards him, one of them actually kicking the body as they walked past. They didn't even notice him, and he hurried past them.

He slowed down when he got to the large room where the boxes were.

"So," came a voice from where he'd just left, as a metal door squeaked while it opened. "Are you lads ready to tell us what you think you know?"

Peter hurried up, but was terrified by the pained grunt that he heard before he got away.

She hadn't exactly forgotten about the letter, of course, but she was working on schoolwork within an hour of seeing Sirius, and it wasn't the most important thing on her mind. She was certain that they'd gone to see Dumbledore, and he would keep them safe.

The owl came an hour and a half after Sirius had been gone, and fluttered around the room anxiously until Lily called him down.

"To Sirius," Lily read. "I'll take it for him- He's not here right now."

The owl dropped the letter, hooted again, and took off out the window.

A little surprised it had been so easy, as most owls preferred to give their package to the proper owner only, Lily picked up the letter, which was not in an envelope.

On the reverse side of the parchment was another note. "Open immediately."

Two thoughts struck her:

It was wrong to read other people's mail.

But what if it really was urgent?

She hesitated, then unfolded the letter.

_We have your friends. If you want to see them alive again, come down to the place you saw us and bring what you stole from us. Bring the other boy as well. If we think anything is going wrong- that you have alerted the authorities or even the staff at the school- we will kill both of your friends. Be at the end of the tunnel at midnight. We will not kill you._

"Oh Merlin," Lily breathed. She reached for the envelope Sirius had given her, then stopped, thinking of Sirius. He'd said three hours, and the look on his face hadn't recommended she try to open it early.

She glanced around the Common Room. "Mike," she said, spotting a fourth year boy who had a huge crush on her. She felt a bit guilty, but it was important, wasn't it?

He trotted over to her, looking excited. "Yes, Lily?"

"Could you open this for me?"

He looked puzzled, but took it. "Sure thing. Who's it-"

The envelope exploded when he opened it, and when the smoke cleared, he was lying on the floor, his skin green and wart-covered, and boils were forming all over his skin.

"...from."

Lily stared for a moment, then took the letter. "Um... Thank you. Perhaps you should go to the hospital wing now? I promise I'll explain later."

He blinked a few times, staring at her. "Sirius Black?" he guessed.

She nodded. "I'm really sorry."

He sighed and turned away, shaking his head. "The things I do for love," he muttered mournfully.

Lily opened the letter.

_This is urgent:_

_There is a passageway that leads to the caves past Hogsmeade in the broom closet near the Potions Room. We followed it a while ago, and have gone back several times. We saw a group of wizards who were hiding out in the caves. We think they are part of the local smuggling ring and they figured out that we know about them. Remus and James are most likely being kept in the caves at the end of that tunnel. Peter and I are looking into it- if we do not return in the three hours, we're in trouble and probably need help._

_-Sirius Black_

_PS: If I die, do NOT give any of my possessions to my brother. They all go to James, and after that, Peter and Remus. Or donate them, but NOT to my family. Especially Regulus. No Slytherins either. Just burn them so that they can't have them._

Lily stared at the letter for a moment before it all sank in. Then she jumped up, rushing over to her friends, who were still playing Gobstones. "Rebecca, Patty, I need you to take these to Dumbledore right now," she said, dropping the letters on the board. "Jean, I need you to come with me."

"It's past curfew," Patty immediately argued. "We can't go out!"

"Black and Pettigrew went after Potter and Lupin."

"What?" squeaked Rebecca, looking shocked. "They know where they're at?"

Lily pointed to the letters. "They think so- and the people who have James and Remus just sent a note demanding that Black and Pettigrew meet them, or else they'll kill the other two."

"Where are you going then?" Patty asked.

Lily scowled. "We're going to stop those two idiots before they get caught too."

The four girls stood up and quickly left the Common Room, Patty reading the letters as they went.

"Merlin," Jean snarled when she'd finished. "Those idiots...!

"Exactly," Lily agreed.

"Good luck," said Rebecca when they reached the splitting of the paths.

The two girls nodded, and Rebecca and Patty went up a flight of stairs, heading towards Dumbledore's office.

Halfway up, the staircase started shifting.

The two stared, horrified, as it came to a halt with the top leading into a broom closet, and the bottom leading to mid air.

They stared at each other. "Oh dear," said Rebecca.

Patty swallowed. "Quite."

"We should have waited for Dumbledore," Jean hissed as they hurried down the long, dark tunnel.

Both had their wands out and were terrified, though neither was willing to admit it.

"We couldn't," Lily said. "The boys need to know that help is on the way, or else you know they'll do something stupid."

"Good point," Jean muttered.

They slowed down, both fearful, as the tunnel got narrower.

"There's a door," Jean whispered.

Lily nodded and went up to it, putting out her wand.

Jean did the same, and grabbed the back of Lily's robe so they wouldn't be separated.

It was pitch black in the cave and they moved slowly.

A slight noise made her pause.

There was still only darkness ahead, and she listened for a moment, then dared to light up her wand again, certain she'd heard something and deciding she'd rather have light and knowledge than have someone else surprise her.

She almost screamed when the light illuminated two people directly before her.

For a moment, she fumbled with her wand while the two facing her did the same.

Then they both recognized each other. "Black!" she hissed.

"Evans! What are you doing here? Where's Dumbledore?"

Jean came through the door. "What do you think you're _doing_? Why didn't you tell him in the first place, you idiots?"

Peter stood behind Sirius and looked terrified. "There's no time for this! They're going to kill them!"

"What?" Lily demanded.

"We... overheard them," Sirius said, and Lily knew he was hiding something. "They're going to kill James and Remus, and they already killed somebody else. We've got to get help, we can't take them ourselves.

"Help is on the way," Lily said. "Patty and Andrea are getting Dumbledore. Listen, they sent a letter, there's a deadline. You have to be at the end of the tunnel at midnight, with whatever you took, or they said they'd kill Potter and Remus.

Sirius glanced at his wrist watch. "That's in fifteen minutes!"

They looked at each other in silence, all filled with fear.

"Maybe Dumbledore will get here in time," Jean said finally.

"Yeah," Sirius said quietly. "Maybe he will."

None of them looked at each other.

Then they saw a light coming towards them. They looked up, then bolted towards the door.

The quartet crouched in the darkness, waiting.

One of the smugglers had come by, glancing around with a lit wand, but miraculously he'd missed seeing them, and the smugglers had gone back into the caves.

"We don't have time to wait," Sirius whispered, his voice so low they could barely hear him. "We have to act now."

"I agree," Lily said, to the surprise of all of them. "Rebecca and Patty will have backup here soon, but if they're not here soon, something could happen."

Sirius and Peter looked at each other, nodded, and Peter pulled something out as Sirius decided on their plan. "Put this on. It's an invisibility cloak. We'll go in and try to get them to bring us to James and Remus. You two put this on and follow us in. Move quiet and stay to the back, and when I say... um, blueberry, count to three and then you guys stun everybody you can and we'll do it too. Got it?"

"Blueberry," Jean repeated nervously.

Sirius nodded and looked at Peter.

"We're going in?" Peter whispered weakly.

"Yeah," Sirius said. "And then we're going to kick their butts."

Jean let out a weak laugh, but none of them found it even remotely funny.


End file.
